ROCK HILL, SC—There is a little over a week remaining in the regular season for Winthrop men's basketball and just three games are left as it begins a two-game stretch on the road at Longwood, Saturday evening at 5 p.m. in Willett Hall.
There is currently a two-way tie for first, Coastal Carolina is a half-game behind in second and the Eagles are tied with Radford for third in the league at 10-5. Winthrop has won two straight, four of five and eight of its last 10 games to post a 15-11 overall record. Charleston Southern, High Point and Radford are all in action Saturday while Coastal Carolina is idle.
This contest will air on the Big South Network and on 104.1 The Bridge with Dave Friedman on the call.
The Eagles are fresh off a 91-70 victory over UNC Asheville on Wednesday as senior
Keon Moore posted his second consecutive 27-point game. The 6-5 guard/forward combo is averaging 23.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals in the last five games while shooting 60 percent (35-for-58), 63 percent from three (24-for-38) and 92 percent from the foul line (22-for-24). He's nearly averaging five threes per game over that span. He's moved to fifth nationally in three-point field goal percentage (.456) and sixth in three-point field goals made at 3.38.
Senior
Andre Smith reached a milestone against the Bulldogs as he became the 21
st player in the program's history to reach 1,000 career points. He did so when he hit the first of two free throws with 10:49 left in the game as he finished with 14 points.
Sophomore
Keon Johnson turned in a solid performance with 10 points as he hit three first half triples to help the Eagles lead by 11 at the break. Moore, Johnson and Smith were all in double-figures for the 13
th time.
There is a race between freshman
Xavier Cooks and redshirt freshman
Duby Okeke for the program's block record by a freshman as they are chasing Chris Malcom's mark of 44 he set in 2008-09. Cooks currently has 41 on the year while Okeke has 39.
The Eagles defeated Longwood in the first meeting, 82-72 in overtime, as it was the Big South opener for both teams on Dec. 31. Moore scored 27 points, including six points in overtime to lead the Eagles to a 1-0 start in the league. He paced four players in double-figures as Smith had 14 points and Cooks had 13 while freshman
Joseph Lopez had 12 points off the bench.
This will only be the sixth time the two teams have met as the Eagles lead the brief series 3-2 and have won two straight.
Longwood enters the game 8-20 overall, 4-11 in the league and is coming off a 78-72 road win at Liberty on Feb. 17.
Quincy Taylor leads the team in scoring at 17.0 per game as he is also tops in the Big South in three-point field goal percentage (48%) with an average of 2.68 per game. He's shooting 44 percent from the floor on the year and had 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting in the win over Liberty.
The Lancers suffered the loss of Lotanna Nwogbo in a loss at Charleston Southern on Jan. 10. The redshirt junior was averaging 12.9 points and 8.2 rebounds before suffering his injury that has kept him out since. In the meeting with Winthrop on Dec. 31, Nwogbo had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Second on the team in scoring is Shaquille Johnson at 13.7 ppg as he is a 41 percent shooter from the floor and 27 percent from three (31-for-115). He had 18 against the Eagles in the first meeting. Leron Fisher, who is fourth on the team in scoring at 10.1 per game, led all scorers at Liberty with 24 points as he also had four assists and four steals. He's led the team in scoring four times and the Lancers are 3-1 in those games.
The next victory for the Eagles will guarantee them a winning record and the first back-to-back winning seasons since 2006-07/2007-08. The Eagles finished 2013-14 with a 20-13 overall record.
